THE LITTLE HEN AND THE GIANT

Polushkin and Salzman transform the giant of this Russian tale into a sort of American bandido--complete with Western hat, yard-long mustache, and a bent for expressions like ""lily-livered critter"" and ""what in tarnation."" The story is a brisk, bold variation on the trusty theme of a spunky small animal facing up to larger ones. (Here, it's a hen who gets fed up with the giant's taking all her eggs.) When a fox, a wolf, and then a bear laugh at her for ""going to get that giant! I'm going to fix him good,"" the hen simply gobbles them up; and when a lake gets in her way, she swallows that too--but her method of ""fixing"" the giant is Wittier than just taking another gulp. Alas, those who fear that children's imaginations are cramped by the practice of illustrating folktales will be supported by Salzman's overwhelmingly literal pictures--which are made all the more blatant by the twocolor limitation. Nevertheless, a strong story-hour attention-holder.